by Bill Wyatt
In 1994, I worked on a U.S. Senate campaign and I remember having a discussion with a congressional staffer about the fledgling Internet. The staffer said to me (and I remember it vividly), "Mark my words, the candidate who most effectively uses the Internet in the next presidential election will win the race."
I spent a lot of time thinking about his prediction and how to go about establishing a web presence for my candidate, but in the end, I think this congressional staffer was ahead of his time.
Now a full 13 years later, that congressional staffer's premonition may be coming true. Within the past month, several candidates have chosen the web as the medium for announcing their presidential candidacy. The Hill Newspaper's Ben Goddard wrote last week about Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's use of webcasts to announce their candidacies.
Goddard, an Emmy Award-winning producer, was struck by the contrasts in the webcasts. Not so much in the two candidates messages but in the quality of productions. Senator Clinton's webcast was, as Goddard writes, "the sort of setting that we used to create with three trucks chock-full of dolly track, gels, scrims, HMIs and dozens of C stands holding lesser lights, silks and reflectors to set the scene for a 35mm camera and a crew of 30." While Goddard says of Obama's webcast, he "appeared to have just plopped down in front of a webcam and started talking..."
Patrick Healy of the New York Times writes today about candidates' gaffes making appearances on YouTube. The example he uses is the recent clip of Senator Clinton singing the national anthem in front of an open mic at an event in Iowa. The clip highlights the former first lady's inability to carry a tune. But, according to the article, her communications gurus were unconcerned accepting the fact that the new media is just another part of the process.
Not to be outdone, others are getting in on the action. Kansas Senator Sam Brownback launched his campaign with a video on his exploratory committee's website on the same day as Hillary Clinton. Former Senator John Edwards launched his campaign on YouTube in December. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has created a "MITT TV" section of his website where visitors can watch the latest campaign appearances.
Healy points out that in campaigns as recent as 2004, the web's new technologies were treated as a novelty. However, in 2008, those same technologies have become an integral part of the campaigns' strategies for reaching voters.
The bottom line, I suppose, is it doesn't matter if you look good or bad online - just as long as you're online.
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